Hello again peoples. So, I picked up my theoretical future starter anvil today. A local guy sold me three 7x7" blocks of some unidentified steel. I have a few spark pictures so I'm hoping someone can give me a bit of input on that as to the carbon content of the metal, roughly speaking anyway. They also came with another chunk that is about 2x9, estimated. Didn't bother to measure since I'm not actually sure what I want to do with that piece yet. Ok, so here are the three as I bought them. The guy who sold them said he got them from a local machine shop. I think he might have had them cut to dimension. I apologize for crappy quality, my phone camera only does so much. Anyway, onward. I ended up working on the far left block. This is how it looked when I started. The rebound in this state using a 2 1/2 lb cross pein is... well, pretty minimal. My workbench probably didn't help but the hammer only bounced back about an inch and a half, maybe two inches. Didn't bounce more than twice with a loose grip. Anyway, took an angle grinder to it. Started with a 36 grit flap disk to remove the rust and what I assume was mill scale, then moved to a 60 grit to get a tiny bit of polish going. I also ended up choosing a different side that was ever so slightly flatter and had less protrusions. Ended up looking like this. There are still some small pits in the surface and a few scratches (I'm not terribly experienced with flap disks). In this state my hammer does dig into it just a bit, but the hammer face also needs to be dressed so that might have been part of the issue. Ok, on to spark testing, which I actually did before the polish. (For any safety minded people, I was wearing earplugs and safety glasses, as was my photographer, and yes, I should have been wearing long sleeves but I was just a little overexcited to get into the project) This is just about the best photo I could get of the sparks. I was comparing to a rough diagram of common spark appearance based on metal type and by my estimate it's most likely medium carbon but I'll leave that up to more expert-ish opinion. Anyway, if someone could help me out with a carbon estimate that would be great. Also, I'm considering whether or not to try and heat treat or harden the surface, since that would entail dragging this thing about 100 miles south to where my friend and co-conspirator on this could help me slap together a coal pit and stuff. I don't have any experience heat treating anything, much less a BLOCK of steel, so tips would be appreciated as well. Also just kind of wanted to showcase that I'm not just sitting around trying to keyboard commando all this stuff together. Thanks chaps!

Recently, my passion for woodworking has been rekindled. I spent a few years building and installing high-end custom cabinetry and shutters several years back, before pursuing my current career as a paramedic. Paramedicine is typically characterized by long, loooooooooong hours (often more than 100 hours/week) and pitifully low wages (most of the "life-savers" who respond to your emergencies make a lower hourly wage less than that of a teenager working at In-n-Out Burger....hence the 100+ hours/week) and so after 8 years I have found myself in dire need of a hobby. While much of my previous experience was done using expensive power tools, I have found myself very interested in the idea of hand crafting wood and even the tools for woodworking.
In my research and purchasing of tools, I began to entertain the notion of making my own chisels and plane irons. A premium 2 3/8" wide plane iron made of 3/32" O1 steel is roughly $40 from Hock Tools, whereas 18" of 2.5" wide O1 steel of the same thickness would cost me roughly $28+s/h. Likewise, with good O1 steel chisels running around $70/ea, I could theoretically make four or five for the price of one. Further reading and research led me to a number of ideas and techniques used to make premium hand tools, such as laminating a piece of high-carbon tool steel to mild steel or wrought iron to create a tool with that was able to take and keep a finely honed edge, while still retaining the shock absorbing and impact resistance properties of the milder steel (these were also much easier to sharpen as most of the bevel being hones was made up of the milder steel). I also read that tool steels typically contain 0.8%-1.2% carbon (with the higher quality steels having more carbon) and learned how the grain structure and molecular structures affect how finely and edge may be honed and how well it keeps that edge.
I would also note that my father-in-law has been a professional ferrier for about 30 years, and has a small propane forge, anvil, various hammers and tongs, as well as a working understanding of blacksmithing (at least as it relates to shoeing horses). Thus, I have access to basic tools and enough knowledge to hopefully keep me from burning myself too badly-although, if I DO get burnt...well, there's something I HAVE been extensively trained to handle ;-)
Now on to my harebrained schemes...
1) Use mild steel repurposed from old horseshoes, and forge weld a 0.03125" thick piece of O1 steel to the back of one side (using perhaps sand or borax as flux?), creating the laminated edge that is highly sought after in quality chisels and plane irons. The stock could then be rough shaped on the anvil, finished with files or grinders, and then heat treated and tempered before honing a final edge.
2) Simply anneal 0.25" thick O1 stock; then shape, heat treat, and temper accordingly.
3) Heat the O1 stock to critical temperature, then air-cool 2-3x before forge welding and/or shaping (I read in one thread that it is a common method of further reducing the grain size of the steel)
4) Use a case hardening method to increase the carbon content of the O1 stock from roughly 0.90% to (hopefully) something closer to 1.2% (I have a video tutorial/lesson by the American Gunsmithing Institute that explains and demonstrates case hardening small parts using a propane torch and carburizing liquid that is brushed onto the steel)
Well, these are the ideas I am throwing around in my head. I would greatly appreciate any advise and/or caution from those with more knowledge on the subject.
Thank you in advance!

Hello there,
The other day I was forging a bottle opener and a hook and after pulling them out of the pickle I use to clean off scale I noticed a small crack that ran along the length of them. I wondered the reasoning for it (perhaps it was my doing) and then I looked at the 3/8x3/4 flat bar I cut out of and noticed the crack ran all the way though it as well. I threw in my scrap bin, but yesterday I used some 1/8x1/2 flat bar and it has the same thing along the edges. I should mention that these cracks dont go all the way through but are only on one side. What could be causing this?
Thanks ahead,
Jake